August 9, 2002	Friday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 29,1423

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ISLAMABAD, Aug 8: The Election Commission on Thursday issued code of conduct for government controlled electronic media for “balanced” coverage of political activities in the general elections.

The EC, after a meeting presided over by the chief election commissioner, stated that it was the duty of the commission to make arrangements for ensuring that the elections were conducted honestly, justly, and fairly and corrupt practices were guarded against.

The EC, however, explained that its direction for balanced coverage did not mean that each party must get exactly the same air time, but parties should be given broadly the same amount of time.

“Balance implies that to no reasonable person should it appear that one political party is being projected to the exclusion of others.”

It stated that the balance need not be achieved in any day or story, but over a reasonable period of time, say one week.

It stated that it was expedient to formulate a code of conduct for Pakistan Television Corporation and Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation to ensure that their coverage was fair, unbiased, and balanced in respect of any political party, candidate or leader.

It was the duty of the commission to ensure that no political party or leader was discriminated against, it said.

Any such direction or order by the Election Commission should be executed as if it had been issued by the high court, the EC stated.

The EC in its Order stated that in pursuance of the provisions of Article 218 (3), read with Article 6 of the Election Commission Order, 2002, PTV and Radio Pakistan would have to observe the following code of conduct:

“The coverage be fair, balanced and unbiased in respect of the following: campaigning and excerpts from campaign speeches; symbols, banners, flags and other campaign material of parties; results of opinion polls by non-political professional organizations with a proven track record; party manifestoes (critical analysis of which is also perfectly legitimate); candidates and their views in different constituencies across the country; the positions taken by the main parties on different issues important to the electorate; debates between major parties and candidates; analysis of previous voting pattern, victory margins, swings, etc.”

“There should be no coverage of any election speeches or other material that incites violence; in any constituency, one candidate alone should not be projected. While it is not necessary to cover every single candidate (as some constituencies may have several candidates), at least the more important should be covered in any report from a constituency. No political party should be given substantially more coverage than others.”

The EC approved the appointment of 109 district returning officers, 678 returning officers and 945 assistant returning officers for the election.

It decided that EC Secretary Hasan Mohammad would be the spokesman for the commission.